Friday, January 27, 2012

Welcome to this week's challenge! Didn't we have wonderful Bear creations shared in our last challenge! We enjoyed visiting your blogs to see your creations... and int was great to see cards of different shapes (that I hadn't seen before)! Thank you to everyone who has shared their creations with us...

Our Prize Winner from Challenge #6 Bears has been drawn from random.org... this week we offer our congratulations to...

Samantha, please contact me (Pauline) at the yahoo email on the right, for details on how to claim your prize of 4 Pink Gem Design images! Thank you so much Janet, for sponsoring our #6 challenge, with your Pink Gem Designs!

Swing on by, and collect your Top 3 badge from our left sidebar... congratulations, everyone!!

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To our next challenge! It does our soul good to be able to cheer someone up when they need it. We would like you to create something cheery for a friend! So our challenge theme for you this week is

FRIENDSHIP

We are excited to share with you our sponsor Happileigh Scrappin'! Leigh creates both coloured and uncoloured images, and they are delightful! Do visit her store, as she always has a wonderful special available to all her customers.... if you buy three images, you get another one free!

Our randomly drawn challenge winner will receive the fabulous selection of digital images that our design team created with this week... what a great prize!

Our Design Team has created some beautiful creations to share with you this week, and we hope you find inspiration in them!

(For details of each creation, click on the DT names, to visit their blogs!)

We would love to see your FRIENDSHIP creations ... Whether it be created for a friend illness, sadness, or a random act of kindness, get your sunshine on! Share your cheery friendship creations with us!

Barb, please contact me (Pauline) at the yahoo email on the right, for details on how to claim your prize of 4 MelJen Designs images! Thank you so much Meljens, for sponsoring our #5 Birthdaychallenge!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

It's always fun to learn something new and practice getting better at something old. Right? I really like to paper piece..it gives my images some great dimension. Also this new "frosting/snow" technique is super fun..see below...

*My info about scissors for paper piecing:

What i have learned is that the right scissors makes all the difference. I have found the the scissors i use for making teddy bears have also worked wonderfully for cutting paper...but i wouldn't use the same scissors for both because paper dulls scissors. So my recommendation for a pair of scissors to paper piece with would be to look at the blade width...not the length, but the width...the thinner the blade the skinnier the cut. Then i look at the length...pretty much any scissors with a thin blade is pointy and sharp...which you need. My scissor blade is about 1.5". Another thing i've learned is to move the paper not the scissors so much. Okay..so let's get started.

First you will need to print your image out, so you will know how big of piece of "pattern" paper you will need to paper piece with.
Then what i do is use piece of computer paper and hold it over the one i just printed, because then i will know where to place the paper i want to print on for my paper piecing. I lightly tape the paper in the right position on the computer paper and print the image one more time. (If you want more then one color to paper piece with you will print your image that many times)

I have already colored in my image, knowing that i will paper piece the cupcake wrapper and stars. Next thing to do is cut out what you want from the pattern paper. In this case *I cut out my paper piecing images on the outside line and not inside of the line..and not on the line...that way i know i am covering the image. If i were going to "but up" two pattern paper pieces together, then i would cut on the line.

And this is what it looks like once you've glued your pieces on your "base".

Now for some fun. I just learned this technique from another blogger. (Thanks Lisa) All you need is Marvy's Liquid Embroidery pen...it is heat activated. At first i followed the directions and waited over night for it to dry..but I found out that once it's dry to the touch you can use your heat gun to "puff up" the paint..and not wait overnight.

Close up of when it's wet:

Close up of what it looks like after i've used my heat gun (**be careful...and not hold it over too long or you will scorch it)

Ok...wasn't that fun? So now you need to come back on Thursday for our next challenge to see what my card looks like. :) Thanks!

Swing on by, and collect your Top 3 badge from our left sidebar... congratulations, everyone!!

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On to our new challenge! Has your spark for a New Year started yet? I have an enthusiasm for January which is great, until we hit our 40C hot days. To get that motivation pumping, this week we want you to

MAKEITCOLOURFUL!

We are excited to have a repeat sponsor (already!) the uber-fabulous... Bugaboo Stamps! Our randomly drawn challenge winner will receive their choice of 7 Bugaboo images... what an awesome prize!

Have you had a chance to see the latest Bugaboo releases? There aren't enough hours in the day to create with them all!

Our Design Team has created some fabulous colour-filled creations to share with you, and to inspire you! Have a look!

The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG's true random number generator.

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Our sponsors are very special to us! If you are a digi designer and able to sponsor at short notice (should it happen), or if you want to sponsor us in the future, we would love to hear from you. We would love to showcase and promote your designs for you. Please email Pauline (below) for details!

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